


Life and Love Find a Way

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: SPN AU Bingo [31]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Complications of Variable Intelligence, Discussion of Breeding, Discussions of the Ethics of a Unicorn Pretending To Be A Horse, F/M, M/M, Multi, Unicorn!Hannah, cross-species romance, unicorn!Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 08:30:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17597837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Sam's gotten used to having a horse that he can ride out and talk to and have respond intelligently as long as no one else is around.  When he meets another horse he suspects is similar to his Castiel, whose owner is having trouble breeding her, he thinks he might be able to help.  Of course, if he's right, that help might not be in the form Crowley expects.





	Life and Love Find a Way

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SPN Fluff Bingo  
> Square: Embarrassing First Meeting
> 
> Written for SPN AU Bingo  
> Square: Secret Identity

From the moment Sam laid eyes on her, he was certain that Hannah was no normal horse. She appeared for all the world to be a perfectly ordinary dark brown racehorse, unless you looked at her eyes for long enough and knew what to look for. Sam felt even more certain about his guess when he brought Hannah to visit his rescue stable. Castiel’s ears perked up and he came over to investigate, his eyes sharpening like they did whenever he felt Sam needed his enhanced abilities. One sniff of the new mare, and Castiel was on his way to the stable. Hannah was now also noticeably more attentive, her eyes never leaving Castiel as Sam got the saddle on him. He didn’t bother with the bridle or bit – with Castiel, he didn’t need the reins.

As Sam had expected, Hannah followed as Castiel trotted down to the creek. Once there, Sam dismounted, letting Castiel shift to human form. “Where did you find her?”

“At a racetrack. Her owner’s a… friend isn’t exactly the right word, but he and Dean are drinking buddies. Crowley trains and breeds racehorses, and he’s been racing Hannah.”

Castiel stared at Hannah, eyes narrowed. “You’re not supposed to do that. You know that.” Hannah scuffed at the ground. “Is that why she’s here? Crowley’s giving up on her?”

“Not exactly,” Sam said. He rubbed his neck, trying to figure out how to explain. “He asked me to take a look at her, since he’s been trying unsuccessfully to breed her for two years now, make sure there wasn’t some kind of issue with her fertility. Examining her felt a lot like examining you when you first came here aside from the obvious differences – I could tell there was something off, and this time, I had a good guess what it might be.”

“So you brought her to me, not to the ranch because she needs a new home,” Castiel said. “What did you tell Crowley?”

“I told him that I needed to take some blood to check for infections or whatever, and then if that checked out, I might have a horse worth trying.” Sam looked between them, noting Castiel’s discomfort. “Hannah, would you mind shifting?”

Hannah looked to Castiel, who nodded at her. “He’s worthy, Hannah. He sensed me before he knew what a unicorn was, and never forces me to shift or do anything to expose myself. His brother and partner here doesn’t know what I am.”

Hannah shifted, becoming a rather pretty woman with dark brown hair. “You clearly know what I am, so you know why no prior breeding attempts have been successful. If you breed me to your unicorn, it’s likely to work. What is there to talk about?”

“Well, it’s one thing, when your owner doesn’t know what you really are, for him to just treat you like any other horse and try to breed you. I do know what the two of you are, which means I wouldn’t feel right about not giving you a choice about this. You and Castiel both,” Sam added with a glance at his unicorn. “If you don’t want to have a foal, or a child, or however this works with you guys, I can tell Crowley I found something in your bloodwork that makes you infertile. I’m not gonna participate in forcing a pregnancy on someone intelligent enough to object.”

“Oh. That’s… surprisingly considerate, from a human. I can see why Castiel was drawn to you and revealed himself.” Hannah looked over Castiel. “I know Crowley wants me to have foals, and I wouldn’t mind, but it does get complicated with the racing. I’ve tried twice to escape, and when I’m racing, I keep anything beyond normal horse abilities bound up tight. I’m no better than I would be as a true horse.”

“So you’re telling me that you’re really just that good?” Castiel said.

“Crowley knows how to train horses. A lot of my stablemates are as good or better,” Hannah said.

“So what’s the complication?” Sam asked. “If you become a successful breeder, wouldn’t he retire you from racing?”

“Me, yes, but my foals would likely be raced. A lot of young unicorn foals don’t know how to control their powers, and end up overperforming as young racers and then becoming massive disappointments once they’re taught better.” Hannah glanced once again at Castiel. “What do you want, Castiel? You wouldn’t have to do anything with the foals afterwards, that would be my job and Crowley’s or Sam’s, and if Sam minded you doing this he wouldn’t have brought us out here to talk about it.”

Sam jumped. “Wait, what? What do I have to do with any of this?” He looked over to Castiel, who was staring intently at the creek. “Cas?” When no explanation was forthcoming, he looked back to Hannah. “What’s going on? Is this because Cas lives here, and I own the place? Because I don’t really claim ownership of any of the horses here, and especially not Cas, since he’s not a horse.”

“No, this is because when a unicorn decides that an adult human is worthy of knowing the truth, it’s often followed by a very close relationship,” Castiel said, barely loud enough for Sam to hear. “It’s not always sexual or romantic, but it’s close enough that Hannah’s concern about you would be reasonable. Until just now, I assumed you thought of me as a horse with some special capabilities, rather than a person, or I’d have talked to you before.”

It took a couple tries for Sam to get his brain working enough to talk. “Huh. Well, you’re… it’s kind of complicated? Like, I know you’re a person, but at the same time it never occurred to me that you might be interested in that kind of thing?” Sam smiled and gave an embarrassed shrug. “If you’re interested I’d be willing to explore it, if we can figure out how to hide it from Dean so you’re not exposed, but I’m not gonna object to you and Hannah doing whatever you’re gonna do.”

Castiel shifted back to horse form, but with his horn out and visible. Hannah followed suit, and touched her horn to Castiel’s. Sam watched in fascination as light rippled along both horns, blue rising from Castiel’s head, white from Hannah’s, pulsing gold where the horns met. The gold slowly enveloped both horns, and when it reached the unicorns’ heads, Castiel pulled back and shifted. Hannah quickly followed suit. Sam was just about to ask if that’s how unicorns bred when he realized two things. One, Castiel and Hannah had both shifted without clothing this time, standing in front of him naked. Because of that, it was easy to notice that Sam might want to get out of there unless he wanted to watch the unicorns mating in a much more sexual manner.

He turned away, hoping it would hide his embarrassment, but Castiel reached out to him. “Sam. If you’re interested, Hannah and I would like you to join us. Obviously, you can no more successfully breed Hannah than a horse could, but there’s no reason you can’t be involved. If you don’t want to, we’ll shift back to horse form, so things will be less awkward for you.”

“I… um…” Sam looked at Hannah. Castiel, he understood, but Hannah barely knew him. “You’re okay with this?”

“Yes. I am. I haven’t known you long, but I know that you’re a good man who truly accepts us as we are, you’re a very attractive man,” – Sam flushed at that, he’d heard it before but very rarely from someone whose opinion mattered to him like this – “And I know that Castiel likes you. He wants you to join us, and I have no objection to that.”

“Huh. Okay, then, I can… I’d like to do that.” Sam was not prepared for Castiel to step up to him and hug him, but he recovered quickly enough to get his arms up to hug him and Hannah when she came to join them.


End file.
